Heoi, ahakoa te harikoa o Ngāti Ruanui, e kī ana rātou, kāore anō kia mutu te pakanga ki te aukati i ngā mahi maina tākere moana puta noa i Aotearoa. Neke atu i te tekau tau tēnei kaupapa e tohea ana e te iwi.
“He rangi maumahara, he rangi mokopuna, he rangi ruanui tika rā me mihi atu ki a rātou kua whetu rangitia ngā tupuna, rātou kua tautoko i tēnei o ngā haerenga, tēnei o ngā kaupapa nui ki patea,” hei tā Tuteri Rangihaeata o Ngāti Ruanui.
“Ki ngā mokopuna i era wā he tamaiti he kohine, hēoi i ēnei rangi kei te whangai te maumahara ki o rātou ake tamariki, ētahi he mokopuna nō reira he mohoao te whenua, he mohoao te haere, he mohoao nui tēnei o ngā rā,” hei tā Rangihaeata anō.
E mea ana a Hemi Ngarewa o Ngāti Ruanui he wā ki te whakanui, engari kia mau tonu ki te matapopore o te iwi, arā, ko te Aukati i te maina i te papa moana mō ake tonu atu.
“Ko mātou inaianei kei te tautoko te kaupapa mai ngā roia e pā ana ki tēnei kaupapa kua oti, ko tērā tōku whakaaro kua oti tāna mahi the fast tracking,” hei tā Hemi.
Ka mutu, hei tā Rangihaeata, e tohu ana tēnei rā i te mana o te iwi:“Ki mātou nei ki Ruanui, ki mohoao e tangi ana i te mea he roa te haere he rā āno āpopo mō ngā kōrero katahi āno kua puta mai, ko ēnei rangi tika rā me motuhake āno, ki mana Māori āno.”
TTR withdraws seabed mining application, Ngāti Ruanui vows to continue national fight
Trans-Tasman Resources (TTR) has withdrawn its application to mine the seabed off the South Taranaki coast, a significant victory for Ngāti Ruanui, who have led a decade-long opposition to the project. The company submitted its withdrawal just one day before the application deadline.
The iwi celebrated the milestone, viewing it as a moment of remembrance and a testament to the perseverance of their ancestors and community. However, iwi members were quick to point out that the overall battle to protect New Zealand’s oceans seabeds is far from over.
“So you know we take the wins as they come but you know, we can’t lose sight of the prize at the end of the day and that’s to Ban Seabed Mining,” says Rukutai Watene of Ngāti Ruanui.
“We went through the high court and they lost in that. They went to the supreme court they lost there as well, So they decided to bring in the fast track so that they could bypass that legal system,” he says.
The long fight, which involved multiple court battles including losses for TTR in the High Court and Supreme Court, was viewed by iwi members as a matter of protecting the environment for future generations.
83-year-old Hemi Ngarewa Ngāti Ruanui kaumātua spoke of his hope for his descendants: “I’m over the moon, I’m not worried about me, I’ve had my innings, it’s the next generation talking about our tamariki, we’re talking about our mokopuna because they’ll see how magnificent the awa, the moana below is.”
While the iwi will celebrate this achievement in Pātea, they remain committed to carrying the fight against seabed mining across the wider country.
“So a lot of our mokopuna seen for themselves, that we’ve never seen to come and pakanga to the kawanatanga, yea so for them an opportunity they probably wanted to go but they’ll reflect when they’re a lot older around the fights’” says Ngapare Nui of Ngāti Ruanui.
“We got to go back to you know tekau mā wha pea, rima pea i timata te kaupapa nei me te wero o rātou ki a mātou ki roto Pātea, and all those battles that we’ve had over those years and suppose we still got knowledge those ones that no longer here with us,” he says.
“When we went to parliament, went to our moana, our tātahi to make our stand and to get where we are now like everybody else tino harikoa mātou”.